NASA's Dawn spacecraft Leaves Vesta and sets sail for Ceres

After becoming the first spacecraft to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in July 2011, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has spent the last year mapping the giant asteroid Vesta.

The spacecraft has now bid adieu to Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the Universe and is on its way to the dwarf planet Ceres to continue its mission to help shed light on the evolution of our solar system.

Communications sent via NASA’s Deep Space Network confirmed Dawn’s departure from Vesta at about 11:26 p.m. US PDT on Tuesday, September 4.

Launched on September 27, 2007, it took the spacecraft almost four years to reach its first port of call, but the second leg of its journey is set to be a bit quicker with Dawn expected to arrive at Ceres early in 2015.

Dawn’s departure from Vesta was far from dramatic.

It gently spiraled out of the giant asteroid's orbit propelled by, what Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director, called “a blue-green pillar of xenon ions,” emitted from the ion propulsion system that generates thrust by using electricity to ionize xenon.